Stage up and down

preface

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, I accompanied a media colleague to shanxi to interview his hometown Shangdang Zhuizi Opera Troupe. I got along with the troupe in the small village where the performance was performed for a week, and had the opportunity to get in touch with all kinds of human ecology, conflicts and disputes inside the caodai opera troupe, as well as the embarrassing difficulties under the impact of social habits. Because of the Olympics, the troupe lost money and went home.
1

It was under the stage that I met Li Xiao.

She came to me looking for someone. I was sitting on a little bench, and in front of me were all old men sitting on little benches or stones. Without a stool, Li stood in front of me, talking to someone. She wore an open-shouldered pinched pink shirt and two large earrings, which stood out among a patch of earthen black. I am confused whether she is an actress of the troupe, in the morning in the primary school dormitory chat.

“You’re not acting?” ‘I asked, when my eyes met, in case I did not recognize her.

“Me?” She was obviously a little surprised. “I’m not acting.”

“You’re not part of the troupe?”

“No, I come to the play.” She looked at me and said, “I’ve been in a play before.”

When I got out of the taxi in front of the stage yesterday, I caught a glimpse of Lao Mo sitting on a cement telephone pole, nodding his head and cradling his bag. “Dog day village chief,” he said. “Bad guy.”

I really want to catch up on my sleep. I got up early today. The village committee had an empty room, and the chief said he could have a bed, but no quilts.

Lao Mo said that all the performers slept in the primary school, but there were also a few on the stage. He led me to the stage with his eyes half closed, saying that I might as well sleep on it.

It was quiet on the dais. There are a lot of chests, the kind of chests with metal sides that evoke the word “baggage.” Inside, there were two narrow quilts on the floor and two or three people under them. Lao Mo said the beds were made by each of the actors, so there were no extra quilts in the troupe.

No one was awake. I feel there is no hope of sleeping here. The village looked empty from the dais, a row of tall elm trees swept southward by the wind.

2

A man in his fifties wakes up and fiddles with a light fixture. Large and small round and square spotlights, all silver, had ascended to the roof beams of the stage. The floor of the stage was an earthen platform, but the ceiling was brown with monochromatic rafter beams and rounded beams. A child was filling something with a piece of leather tubing that looked like a helmet, and his hands were stained a dark red, like cinnabar. When I asked what it was, he looked up with a smile and said it was bloody.

When it was finished, he hung it on the high place, like the little boy who had set up the lamp. “When we were in battle, we beheaded a man. When you cut this open, blood spurted out.”

The man looked at the children and sighed that they were hardworking and could do nothing but get a low salary. Head Shen is the highest paid member of the team.

I asked Lao Mo, “Isn’t the colonel li?” The man said, head shen means deputy head, his name is Shen Xiaoyun.

The people in the troupe set out from Lao Mo’s hometown last night and sat up most of the night, sleeping all morning, for the evening performance.

Stage up and down
Is seeing the man install shoot the light of time, have a child lead to say: “quick open meal. Let’s eat together across school.”

The school was outside the village, half in a cornfield. The sun shone on the white ground, there was no movement in the front and back yards, only the cook was in the kitchen. As we approached a student dormitory, we saw several people on the floor sleeping under their bedding. One of the beds was empty and Mo said it was meant for us, but when he took it out he found moldy. We didn’t disturb the sleeping actor.

In the kitchen, the master stood beside a steaming cauldron on the hearth, and was pulling together with others, pressing hard on a very long device, under which short strands of noodles fell into the pot. Master said come on, help me press. Lao Mo and I hurried to hold the very long wooden stick, the master said it was very laborious. We dangled and pressed down, and the master added lumps of noodles to the device, and bundles of short, thin noodles fell into the pot until the noodles were finished and I was sweating. Hele said he called it hele.

Before dinner, some people had come to see Lao Mo and a middle-aged man squatting beside the coal, who seemed to have something on his mind. He said to me that this was Colonel Li. Li head squatted on my head, and called for me to find a pair of bowls and chopsticks, a tall actress said she had more than a lunch box, took it for me, Lao Mo said her name is Sister Sun.

The master knocked on an iron cylinder hanging on the wall outside the kitchen. All the men came out with China bowls and lunch boxes. Some rubbed their eyes. Hele everyone crowded from the hele cauldron, another scoop his whistle from a basin, everyone squatted to eat, two people squatted outside the school gate.

For a while only heard sucking, eating people can add half a bowl, master by master. Sun asked me what I was doing here, and Lao Mo said I was going to experience life with him. Sun said, “You are not accustomed to such a life.”

After dinner I met the village chief, who got out of a Summerly car whose license plate was almost out of sight. He said that the mattress was ready and that he was looking for two quilts so that you could go to rest later. His shanxi accent sounds a little tight.

Lao Mo had told me that someone in the village had accused the chief of illegal election and bad manners, and that he might think our presence had something to do with it.

It is well that he should not offend us. Molina said.

At that time, in a cafe in Dawanglu, Lao Mo said that he did not want to stay in Beijing during the Olympics, but wanted to return to his hometown to accompany a troupe and me to accompany him. Ten or so days later he called and said he was leaving with the troupe, just as the Olympics were about to begin, and someone came to my rented house to check his temporary residence permit.

That night, I was on the bus to Shanxi.

3

At the beginning of the play, we realize that there are so many people in the village, sitting on small benches or stones all over the place, flanked by people selling melon seeds and peanut lollipops and watermelon stands pulled by carts. Some men in the distance were building stoves at a leisurely pace. They knew that the play would last six days and were now building stoves to sell twist flowers.

Many people went behind electronic screens on either side of the stage and big speakers to watch it, just as we used to watch outdoor movies from the back of the screen when we were children. The program on the electronic screen is Yang Qiniang, which is also controlled by the two children.

The leading lady opened, I know is the electrician said the colonel Shen Xiaoyun. With my amateur ear, the singing is clear in with a mild, some professional taste, suitable for the heavy snow falling on the stage, the snow is also the child made out, like a special to cool the hot venue.

Li laughed and said, “The singing of Yang Qiniang is not bad.” “Why aren’t you singing?” I asked. She said she felt “bored.”

She told me that she lived in a neighboring village and had come with her father and brother.

She asked me if I was alone. I said there was a guy who was filming the actors on the stage. “You’re journalists?” “Yes, but This time I’m not here for an interview.”

After a while, I ran on the stage side, to pass the old Mo’s camera, pulled closer to the crowd to the back of the walk to take pictures of Li Xiao. Two round earrings stand out on her small head. Lao Mo said: “You openly candid, careful of the young people in the village ah.”

Li Was walking toward one of the long rows of motorcycles parked at the end of the playground, young people riding on the seats with their braces up to watch the play. She was carrying a small boy with his hair tied upside down that she had just found.

In the evening, I met Li Xiaoxiao again under the stage. I asked her for her phone number and found that there was a man not far from her. It was the man who was riding on the motorcycle yesterday.

I went back to find old mo, he worked in a small stall talk to sell melon seeds of the woman, the woman wore a faded t-shirts printed with health care products printed, sell the goods seems to be the son of the smallest, is a little melon seeds and lollipops, her to come at noon, also said that won’t be home at night, will spend the night in the village, the home is ten miles, from the village back again to spend 10 pieces of the fare. “How did you spend the night?” I asked. She smiled and said anything.

We bought melon seeds, she turned her back to get the plastic bag, and I was surprised to see that she was wearing a sweatshirt with the words “Stronger, More durable” written on the back.

Taiwan staged Zhao Kuangyin enthroned and killed the most enthusiastic effort of Zheng Sunzi, Tao Sanchun against the Peiping Government. Tao Sanchun seems to be Shen Xiaoyun, Zhao Kuangyin is sun Jie cross.

After the play ended, a group of people came from outside the village committee room. I went out to see the actors washing their makeup. There was a new stove built last night, piled with honeycomb coal, and this morning there was a pot of water, of which I knew not what I did, from which the actors were now scooping out their POTS.

With my makeup on and my clothes off, I didn’t think I recognized any of them. I didn’t know who was on stage or who was off stage.

But it washes so quickly, I wonder how the makeup that I put on so slowly and completely washes off with one blow, and a small basin of water is poured out. I recognized two of the little girls I had seen at school at noon yesterday. They looked smaller now with their makeup on, hardly enough to be on stage with armor, palace fans, or weapons, and more fit to sit in class.

And the tall grandsister, who has just laughed with me. I said, “You’re a good singer. You’re a good singer.” She laughed sheepishly. “That’s bo.

Yesterday afternoon at school, I said they were artists and they laughed.

4

Yesterday afternoon did not sing, outside the weather is hot, I and the old Mo to a dormitory, heard inside someone softly hum play, go in but did not. One of the actresses was seen sleeping on the upper bunk, the others were sitting on the lower bunk, with a sleeping baby lying flat on the middle rack, and the actress sitting near the baby’s head was sewing. It’s not just a needle and thread. It’s like double-sided embroidery.

I said, “You’re so handy.”

She gave a little laugh.

She embroidered a baby’s belly pocket. Her husband was also in the troupe, and the couple brought the children out. I asked Sister Sun, “Why didn’t you bring your husband out?” “The fields rustled.” “Then you don’t?” “Yes, I want him to hit you twice more.” Sun said with a smile.

“One in the first few months, not yet.” “Said another woman. “Thought to see once, there are rules in the team, came to vacate the house.

“Then you won’t leave the house for a year.”

“No, I stay indoors in winter, and only come out when the crops are planted in spring. I have to harvest the crops, and I stay out for only half a year.”

I want them to sing to listen to, they point to embroider belly pocket of her, she smiled, said to hum, can’t sing, to go on stage will sing, you heard in the evening.

I said I don’t know which one of you sang tonight. The upper berth that woman suddenly smiles to point to sun Elder sister, say she you affirmative recognize, as long as play the emperor is her, we peacetime call her emperor.

She pointed to the upper bunk, “She is Eight elder sister Yang.” “And the nine sister?” “Nine younger sister is in another house, watching people play cards.”

In another room, apart from card players, several small actresses sat around chatting, dialect and Mandarin. “Are you still at school?” I asked. They laughed and said they went to art school. “This place art school many, junior high school graduation many went up art school, have in Yuci, in Taiyuan.”

“Every village in Shanxi has a stage where they sing at temple fairs, which are the birthdays of fairies, and there are all kinds of fairies who can sing, as long as someone asks them to play,” Said Mo. Every festival to do a happy event, may be invited to play. So more people go to art schools to study drama. This scene was invited by the richest man in the village. He stayed in datong and did not come back.”

Stage up and down
The actors left and the lights went out in front of the stage. The village grew dark faster than I thought, and there was still half a pot of boiling water in it. I took the basin out to wash my face and suddenly wanted to take a bath. Take off clothes in the dark, simple shorts also took off, took basin of water to wipe and from the shoulder down.

There was a slight wind in the village, blowing through the great elms in the distance. I rubbed my chest and the genitals between my legs with a piece of soap I had bought with mosquito coil incense at the village store. My chest lacks muscle, but it is fairly clean and open. When I dry my penis with a towel, I feel a little melancholy. This organ, which depends on fate, is fluffy and soft, with a sense of being alone. It has been in this situation for a long time, because of me.

Back in the house, I sent Li a text message. “Are you asleep?” Her reply came after a while.

‘Which one?

“A predestined man under the stage.”

The name seemed to give her pause. Then the text came back.

“Not yet. You didn’t sleep?”

I said I couldn’t sleep. She did not return.

5

The next day after the show, Lao Mo and I went backstage to watch the actors take off their makeup.

Backstage everything was busy, actors and actresses pulling off their costumes. Just back to the stage still planting the flag of the male actors have a heroic spirit, this day is the bailou river, Yang family eight sons have played. Play eight elder sister is to play Yang Shulang smoke ling flag, the original eight elder sister’s husband is four lang.

The costumes were hung loosely on the ropes and smelled of sweat. A little actor, still in the costume of the fanning princess, crept through the sleeves of the larger ones. In the afternoon Lao Mo took a photo of her.

She had finished her makeup, but she wasn’t wearing a headdress. She was sitting on the box in her current dress, dazed, but she seemed to know someone was taking a picture and then leaned in to look. I asked her how old, know she is 15 years old, on the ordinary junior high school, the summer vacation out singing, do not know the school still go to go. Do not want to go far away, if the troupe out of Changzhi, she will go home.

I said, “It’s a pity you don’t study.” “There are still college students in our troupe who don’t go to school. He is a musician. He plays the Erhu well.”

When the actors came back to school, I followed them to the bathroom. A maid and a tall boy walked in front of me, the boy holding an Erhu in his hand. When I talked to them, the maid suddenly turned to me and pointed to the boy. “He’s a college student,” she said.

With a shy smile, the college student pinched something on the roadside with his free hand. He still wore the Tang suit of the onstage musician.

He studied accounting in a school in Taiyuan and felt that it would be difficult to find a job after graduation, so he went out to play the erhu. Erhu for one year.

“He did a good job.” “Said the little maid, turning round. She walked close to the college students, a little lost in thought.

Before going to bed, I sent a message to Li Xiao, asking why she didn’t come today. She said something was wrong and she wasn’t in the mood.

‘Was the play well today?

“Not bad,” I said, “but I didn’t see it.”

‘Why not?

“You are not under the stage.”

6

The afternoon theatre had begun.

It was a hot day, and the stage was a little dull, except for the old people. In the distance, near the shady store-house, there were others. I stood behind a group of sitting old people and looked. The stage caught yesterday’s play, staged is “Zhao Ershe ascended the Throne”, the sun sister is still playing Zhao Kuangyin.

After a while, I received a text message. “You look at it very seriously.” It’s from Li.

I looked back, but did not see her. I’ll tell you where you are. She said I’m behind you. You can’t see me.

‘Do you enjoy the theatre very much?

I said, “I think it’s art. They sing seriously, and I want to sing seriously.”

‘She said.’ You’re quite an interesting man. ‘

Lao Mo came to me to discuss the drama to buy watermelon actors, such a big sun, they must sing thirsty. He said, “Your village girl is coquette. she’s trying to attract butterflies again.”

I follow his sign to see, Li Smile pulling another upturned plaited child, from the stage side to walk behind. The children seemed to be a handy prop for her to come and go with, and they were willingly picked up and laid down by her. She stopped in the shadow of the playground basketball hoop to talk to two young men.

I don’t like the word SAO. But I think it’s right.

We stood in profile with the musicians and MOE took pictures of them. There was a lively scene in front of the stage, and the musicians were plucking their strings with a frequency that seemed to exceed the limits of the flesh and blood of their wrists and elbows. The erhu was played by college students and another girl, who sat in the front row of the band, demurely dressed in their musicians’ costumes. The girl finished a rapid passage, will suddenly put down the erhu picked up the side of a xiao, for the partner to play a more leisurely accompaniment. This shift surprised me.

After the play, Lao Mo’s watermelon was sent to the stage. After eating the watermelon, the college students and the girls were still on stage, so I asked them to play some other jokes. College students pulled a section of erquan Yingyue, said he could not pull. He preferred to play the jokes in the play, which he thought were better than other pieces of music.

When I asked why, he said the music in the play was particularly expressive. He liked the tune of playing the last part.

I want the girl to play a flute, and she laughs and says she can’t do it without the play. Lao Mo showed them the pictures on her digital camera. She looked closely at them with interest, still not speaking and smiling. College students also looked closely.

The girls left first. College students said a few words to me, suddenly said, I do not know how long to work in the troupe, after the school in September, can not go back to do not know. His expression added a lonely, silent put the girl’s xiao in the box, got up to go back to the primary school, still with his erhu.

At dinner Li crouched down with us and asked if we were used to it. I said yes. He asked Guo Jianguang exactly what to write, “such a troupe, things are very small.”

I said, “You are quite dedicated, not many people during the day you are also serious, think play the emperor that sun sister sing very good, desolate.”

Li head muffled voice said, “She is no good, but an old living cavity, is a wild way, a mouth a cast foot, a lot of places do not conform to the rules, the effort to twist all twist, the insider saw to joke. It’s different from Colonel Shin.”

We saw Shen Xiaoyun when we opened the meal. She came to eat with a man. She didn’t talk to anyone. Li colonel just also and his wife to dozen rice, but Li colonel dozen rice is a person squatting to eat, his wife and the crowd in a pile.

Today’s rice is rice, fried a large pot of pork pasta tofu, compared to the next meal he eat the next defense, of course we eat happily. Li did not add a bowl. When we eat the bowl, he took the finished the empty bowl and spoke a few words with us, didn’t know he has been in contact the next performance today, the original say good local performance only four days, road and far, not cost-effective, today finally in that place again to contact a factory is willing to play for five days, together, two places worth a visit.

It is just that there is not a primary school here, where you have to think of your own way to live. “Living in a farmer’s house is very troublesome.”

7

In the evening, after the actors had washed their makeup, I went to the stage with Lao Mo. On the table, in addition to the two handymen, came a boy who had been acting as a dentist during the day. He was drinking a box of sour yoghurt out of nowhere, and he threw the box away, saying it was no fun, and bought a drink.

After all, the three of us went to the shop in the village. I brought back five bottles of beer and a bag of salted peanuts. Lao Mo bought two packs of cigarettes and smoked one of them, saying it was a lie.

No matter how much you drink, drink one bottle for each person. Halfway through the drink, the boy in charge of the electronic screen stood up and peed under the stage. “You peed so fast?” Mr. Mo said.

“It’s not beer pee, it’s watermelon pee in the afternoon,” he said. And they all laughed.

I said that an old man sitting near the theater tomorrow would smell it, but he said no, “It will disappear overnight. We do it every day.”

The boy’s other task was to pick a pole behind the stage and exchange it for the Liao and Song banners. Tonight’s “Three Passes and The Moon” is about the war between the two countries. There are so many changes in the Liao and Song flags that I am afraid I might make a mistake and have to be scolded. I have been scolded before and my money has been withheld. Although living miscellaneous, low wages, or do not want to go to school, with the troupe is also a play.

“Say SAO, hang beard bashful.” The young man said that both the costume and the mustache were of poor quality and could not be washed. Once washed, they would be ruined. Over the years, when the actor wears a beard, he should first take a few breaths of dry smoke, and then spray a few breaths on the beard, to suppress the smell, or the breath will be carried over.

Smoking old Mofa’s fake cigarette, the rest of the half bottle of beer into his stomach, several other people urine intention also came up, standing together on the stage on the edge of the pee. Just that urinate of child, accident ground again spread, I say his kidney empty, “so point big, kidney not line up, how fall in love.” Everyone laughed, said in the troupe, there is no love talk.

Teeth would clang the beer bottle down the stage and say, sort of complacently, “I’ve talked about love before, in the show.”

There was no such school in the village. The actor lived with the villagers, and the family he lived in was very kind to him. There were only two old ones who kept a girl and fed him. “I can tell. She follows me.” Walking in the village, they are both holding hands. There was a peculiar look on his face which suggested that she was submissive to him in everything.

This annoyed the boys in the village. In acting, the boys rushed up to the stage, pulled their teeth into the crowd, and tried to beat him under the stage. Some of the boys in the troupe quickly went down to fight, and for a while the martial arts on the stage moved to the stage. The long sleeves of the robe, though breezy, were awkward to move, and the groin was protected by a few firm strokes.

“They haven’t been able to make me invalid,” he said, with renewed pride.

The two teenagers, who managed the electronic screen and the flag changer, said they were horrified as the boys threw wine bottles onto the stage. But the electric boy immediately jumped because he and Fang were going to be buddies.

“I’m strong enough to get two punches on the back.” Just the teeth still wearing costumes will be robbed out, but the back of the flag was removed several sides, disorderly step on the ground, after the teeth will pay for themselves, “later li colonel will not call us to live in the villagers’ home.

I asked him if he’d had any contact with her afterwards, and his expression darkened. It turned out that the girl was in Yushe County, only twenty miles away from here, but he had no time to find her. “There’s a play every day, and the colonel won’t let us go out. I don’t call you around the village.” When I asked him what he would do, he looked out of the stage and said, “Wait until I make some money.”

It was dark outside, and there was a small piece of light in front of it. Before the wine went out, we had a bit of a blowout backstage. Tooth will bet more big, good luck, there is a while between me and the old Mo’s luck is not good, he said you are the guest, you lose all can not. I reassured him. Tube electronic screen less than 30 pieces of capital lost, the tooth will lend him 100 pieces to continue gambling, said to win and then, lost when the gambling account was recorded, the so-called gambling account is only in the casino settlement, but long-term effective.

We exchanged phone calls as we walked off stage. Tooth will say, probably next year to Beijing to work, then look for you.

8

The two leaders promised to have a good chat with us.

Putting down the bowl, we went to the entrance of the village and sat down on the lawn with the sign for a summer camp for elementary school students. It was also the project of the mine owner, the grass as dark green as the city lawn. Li was in good spirits and suddenly said to me, “If you want to experience life, you can learn to take a gun, change your clothes and become a soldier on the stage.”

I said yes, I don’t know if I’ll learn. Li said simply, “Come to school early tomorrow and ask them to teach you twice. Those are the steps.

Li head talked about some things before, it turned out that he is also a medical school, yuci county troupe singing martial arts, old and old singing, later do administrative work. When the company collapsed in 2001, Mr. Li bought out the group at age 48 and returned to the Communist Party to start the troupe.

“If a troupe is too big or too simple, even a few dozen people can’t make enough money.”

Li often thought of it, but the troupe’s costumes are their own, a new set to 200,000 to 300,000, old and can not be dealt with out, had to maintain. The situation has not been very good for the last few years. Many people from the villages have gone out to work.

As they talked about these things, the cheerfulness of Colonel Li’s face faded away. The sun was just skimming past an old elm tree, and he was squinting like a weathered rabbit.

I said to our county performance, is not this kind of troupe, is singing and dancing, and acrobatics.

Li nodded. “It’s the kind of singing and dancing troupe that’s more popular than the opera troupe. It’s all young girls who sing and dance. Our troupes are all for old people.”

I said why not add some programs, the first half singing and dancing, the second half. Before li could speak, Lao Mo said it would never work. I looked at colonel Li, who shook his head and said:

“There is no one, the opera singers can’t sing and dance, and the singers and dancers can’t sing and dance. Don’t watch such a play. It takes many years to train an actor. It takes at least half a year to get familiar with a play. Our troupe has arranged a dozen plays in three or four years, and the Yang family has not finished one.”

The mother’s tears, which are to be performed tonight, are a modern play about a son who has lost his mother because of his wealth. “We did it last year,” said the opera troupe, “and the effect was good. It was more educational.”

Li colonel raised his eyes, I looked at the other side of the road, Shen Xiaoyun far across the grass to come.

Shen Xiaoyun with a slight smile, although removed from the costume, some middle-aged fat appearance, posture is still visible. We complimented her on her good performance in the daytime, but she still smiled and said, “In the evening’s modern play, there are some innovations in singing and figure. Li and I have studied and improved them for half a year. You may have a look.”

Later, Li colonel took the initiative to mention the matter of the troupe, said recently not much peace and quiet, someone spread rumors he and Shen Xiaoyun have an affair. Shen Xiaoyun’s husband also joined the troupe. He could neither play nor work, but only feed one person for nothing. Shen Xiaoyun still did not say anything, but smiled.

I somehow thought of her young years, the corner on the stage of prefecture-level city, the audience on the long seats below the stage, like the branches through the smoke at dusk.

Li colonel’s words seem to be in the distance, some inaudible. I got up and walked to the village road, along the high elm under the road to the junction of the road, the road sign said the village is the east qingxiu village, the west is the east Xingsheng village.

I thought of what Li Xiao had pointed out to me. Her village was just to the west. They heard the play the night before and came the next day.

9

In the evening Li xiao asked me to meet on the grass at the entrance to the village.

She was sitting on a stone bench in a shortcut, her face faintly grave. The two-month-old white earrings were bigger than the tiny earlobes, and there was a jade pendant on the chest. Her wrists were resting on the stone table, she was wearing two silver bracelets, and her arms seemed too slender.

Suddenly she looked at me and said, “I’m married.”

“Oh, no.”

“Her family lived in Dongxingsheng Village, and she married in Xiyang County.” ‘she continued, looking at me.

“Oh, Yes, Dazhai.”

“The one on the motorcycle isn’t my brother. It’s my husband. I didn’t come to the theatre yesterday. I went to see my husband off. ‘ “She looked away and said,” Because he wanted me to come back with him, and he argued with me.”

Her husband was ten years older than her, and she had got married in a fit of pique, quarrelling with her parents. ‘she said, raising her eyes again.’ Conditions there are not good at all. ‘

“Are you on good terms with your husband?”

“No.” ‘she said shortly.

‘Why don’t you come out and sing?

“There is a baby. The baby is only half a year old.” She said.

I was a little surprised.

After a pause, she said, “I used to be in the troupe. I’ve been to Taiyuan and as far as Baotou.”

“Do you sing but act?”

“Sing and dance. I sing when they want me to, and I dance when they want me to.”

I think of what Colonel Li said about the new team.

“What a nice name for your village.”

“Yes,” she said. “We have a good view here. There’s no coal.”

“The people.” I said, take her hand, look at her hand tattoo. She asked me to watch.

“What do my palms look like?

“It’s fine.” I said.

“I don’t think I have a good life.”

“You’re all right. The lines are clear.” I said.

“A day to raise children, do crops, see what good life?”

“Didn’t you make many crops when you were a child?”

She said yes. “I’ve done everything. Then I went out to sing in the opera, so I stopped.”

“You’d better go out and sing. It makes sense to study art.” “I said with a straight face.

She looked at me attentively.

Someone passed by and she took her hand back.

10

When I woke up in the morning, the sky was full of light. I didn’t hear the alarm on my phone. I’m afraid the actors have finished the play.

When I squatted down to have lunch at noon, I told Li that I wanted to learn again tomorrow. He only smiled reluctantly and said that it was a joke and he could not learn at a while. His tone and expression were very different from yesterday’s.

the journey is almost over, the old Mo is ready to call a table in the village farmhouse, please two head to eat a meal.

play time to go backstage, the two head are not in, just play Yang Siniang actress is helping Yang Siniang pick the flag, in addition to the outfit, the original “eight sister” and played Yang Siniang, are husband and wife, on the stage parting, the stage by day in a place, can’t live at night. This is li head said the troupe rules, he does not live with his wife, Shen Xiaoyun’s husband is also with the actor. Lao Mo took a photo of the couple taking off their makeup and showed it to them, saying that he would wash one and send it to them later. They walked to school together without a word.

In the farmhouse courtyard, there was a pile of chicken feathers on the ground, and a smell of meat wafted through the house. Tables were set out in the courtyard and could be served soon. Lao Mo called Li colonel, two are unable to connect. Call Shen Xiaoyun again, she a little flash said, “Li leader has something to do, did not return to the village, she will come here now.”

As we sat at the table, the village chief and a man in police uniform walked into the courtyard. The village chief had another meal to go, but the police stayed, he turned out to be the police here. This area has been on guard since the Olympics. Today is the opening ceremony, and he wants to keep an eye on it. There is another team in the village. We said here is not as strict as Beijing guard, he said dismissively, the East Turkistan elements to attack the Olympics in Shanxi as explosives storehouse, because there are many coal mines, “a few days ago, caught the number two”, he said mysteriously.

Then Shen Xiaoyun came. We hurriedly offered our seats and ordered the dishes to be served. When the dishes were served, she told us that Li, the head of the team, could not come, and that the village he had said the day before would not be allowed to act because of the Olympic Games. He went over there today to see if there was any way to save it.

The police officer said, “Wherever the troupe goes, they are afraid of gathering. Now they are not allowed to perform in the city or the countryside. You were good enough to finish the play.”

“Our troupe is very well-behaved. When the actors break up, they are not allowed to wander around the village,” Said Shen.

The afterglow fell on the courtyard, the Olympic opening ceremony was approaching, and the television turned on in the room. The cop keeps talking, and Lao Mo is talking about the Olympics. Shen says very little. I sent A text message to Li Xiao, asking if she was coming to see the play tonight, but she couldn’t come. “So you were at home watching the opening ceremony?” “Also not, the opening ceremony I also don’t understand, the family business.”

After Shen Xiaoyun left, Lao Mo was still talking with the film police, and the owner of the shop came to the table, I left first.

The village was relatively quiet now, a gap between the matinee and the evening performance, with the stones and bricks of the playgoers sitting on the grounds, and the stalls beside the playground and the village roadsides looking lazy. Tomorrow was the last day of the play, and there was already an atmosphere of closure in the village. I walked across the grass, along the avenue to the highway, looked at the sign, and walked toward Dongxingsheng Village.

11

It was not long before we reached the village and the sky was already dark. From time to time, the motorcycle passed by the theatre lit me up, and then only one or two street lamps dimmed.

“I’m in your village.” I texted Li Xiao.

“Ah. Where are you?”

“I am at the entrance of the village. Come out and play.”

For a moment there was no reply. The distant jade milin there, came a burst of music, the play began.

“Come to my house. Go to the very back, round the corner.”

Stage up and down
As I walked into the village with some trepidation, I passed a few old men and young men enjoying the shade. I felt they were all sizing me up. Could there be any danger? Thinking about what The dentist said about the fight with the village lad. See the figure of one or two girls in the middle, think it is Li Xiao, almost to shout out, but it is not.

As far as the back of the village, Li Xiao stood in the darkness around the corner. I approached her, and she turned and walked over a fence. Gently opening the half-height fence, there was light in the main room, and parts of the courtyard were still dark.

As we walked up the steps, Li said with a smile, ‘Parents are going to the theatre.’

It was the Opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, with the TV on and the sound low. On the bed lay a baby.

I sat down on a stool, and Li Xiao sat by the head of the bed near the door. We don’t talk and watch TV.

“I didn’t expect the Olympics to be like this.” “She said later. I thought this might be the first time she had watched the Olympics on TV.

“That’s the way it is.” I stood up and sat down beside her, still watching TV. The athletes marching on the screen were a long way off, and the room was silent. There should be something. I put my arm around her, but she got up at once and said, “Behave yourself.”

She stood in front of me watching TV. Then she stood out in the yard.

I sat down on the edge of the bed. Beside the bed stood a tall VAT. I did not know what it was for, perhaps pickles. The baby was still sleeping quietly not far from me. This is Li Xiao’s child, I think this is a bit strange.

On the wall near me was a photo board bearing some photos of Li Xiao’s family, including those taken by her father during a meeting in the village, with a medal for advanced branch workers pasted below. Li smiled and came in. I said your father is the branch secretary here? She said yes.

She still stood watching TV. The baby in the bed slept like a log.

I said, “You don’t have to give me a drink of water.”

“There is no water for you to drink.”

She seems to be looking at her phone all the time. And looked out again.

I said, “Let me go.” And he stood up.

“Good.”

We went out into the yard and she opened the gate for me. I wondered if there were any snakes in the yard. We stood through the gate, trying to reach out and touch her hair. But I just said, “Let’s go.” Behind her came the faint sound of her closing the gate.

As I walked through the village again, I passed the eyes of a few old men, all of whom were probably going to the theatre. I walked out of the village, the stage through the darkness of the corn forest from the sound, especially passionate and sad, I think tonight is staged is “Han Palace tears of blood”, is Mrs Qi and Zhao Wang Ruyi were killed by The Story of Lu. Li Xiaoxiao’s text message came.

“Where are you?”

“I’m on the highway.”

There was a pause.

“Are you angry? I was unkind to you just now.”

“No, you’re good to me.”

“My mother’s family is in this village, and if there’s any gossip, I’ll be ruined.”

“I know you’re nervous.”

As I walked along the road, it seemed to shimmer a little, the stream a little crooked, its sound absorbed by the sand. Think of two lines of poetry, in what woods thou drinkest with tears, and pour the bottle. On what bank of the river are you most disappointed, discarding the laundry basket.

Although I nervous, the heart is still a little excited – Li Xiao came another message.

“Me too.”

12

Back to the east qingxiu village, the stage is playing lu Pheasant set fire to the West Palace, palace maid and Lady Qi died among them. A flame, made by the electric equipment, rose in an irregular shape on the screen, and the miserable cries of the maids of arms were heard, more and more distant. Only Emperor Hui gazed at the flame as if he were crazy. The fire was reflected in the faces of the musicians, and the movement of their hands was swifter, as if to extinguish it, and yet to pour it higher, and the movement was like the voice, with a strange sadness and solemnity, which was quite different from what it used to be.

tomorrow night is shen Xiaoyun starring “Mu Guiying shuai”, but also Yang will play the final axis. After the play, the troupe will immediately pack up, not to stop for another night.

‘Li came back and didn’t make good contact with the next place because the Olympics had already started and there was no discussion at all,’ Mr. Mo said. We had to go back the same way, but we lost money on this trip. He also plans to return home with his troupe and return to Beijing after the Olympics.

Early in the morning, I got on the bus at the entrance to the village. A lot of people, I have not been able to find a seat, and then someone to get off, my ribs by a bag against a once, hurriedly side body, see get off is selling melon seeds of the old woman.

The snakeskin bag was flat on her shoulder, and the seeds seemed to be sold out. There was also something at the bottom, with edges that could be seen through the skin. Perhaps it was a pony bouncing on the pedals. On its back were the same bold letters:

Stronger, more durable.